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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>bateman is pulling double duty in his new movie, a
dark comedy
about a 40-year-old who worms his way into a kids'
spelling bee
to settle an old score. and not only is bateman the star, it also marks his directorial debut. what does it say about your character? despicable, mean, almost a bully, i would say?

>>listen, he is a gentleman who has had his feelings hurt and he's not as smart as you or me or a viewing public here. he's not well-equipped to sort of mend his wound, lick his wounds. so he's doing something kind of petulant and impulsive here and crashing a
spelling bee
to kind of exact some revenge.

>>he crashes the
spelling bee
, he's surrounded by little kids, that does not mean he uses soft and caring words. i mean, he's tough on these kids. he tricks them?

>>well, yeah, but it's because he's also kind of a kid. i mean, hopefully, people will see there's a deeper agenda here at play and he's -- the analogy i make is when a 5-year-old boy wants to tell a 6-year-old or 5-year-old girl that he likes her, he pulls her hair. you know, and that could be -- that's kind of what this guy is. that's how he bonds with these kids.

>>now, this is your first time directing. how did you find the
lead actor
? difficult to direct.

>>just a dream. this guy, justin i think his first name is. no, jason. every take he did, it was like he was reading my mind. just spot on. no, it was -- i didn't want to play the lead role.

>>i was going to say, i actually heard you didn't want to cast yourself.

>>right. i went after a couple of much more talented gentlemen and they told me to lose their number. so i said i'll play it. because i thought it might lighten my
work load
if i didn't have to direct the
lead actor
. and it let me concentrate on other things.

>>what was it like to direct? is this something you wanted to do for a long time?

>>yeah, a very, very long time. it was a dream, you know. it's very complicated, involved process to create a
fake world
for an audience. and i just wanted the privilege of overseeing that process. it's a lot of people that are very skilled that you need to pull that off. and it was a pleasure to work with all of them.

>>as i mentioned, there are a lot of little kids in this movie. you, of course, grew up in this business. you once were a
child actor
. does that help you kind of relate to them.

>>yeah. one of my first big jobs was on "
little house on the prairie
." look at that. it's like they're reading my mind. look at that. it's a beautiful piece. isn't it?

>>and that hair.

>>look how full that piece is. so
michael landon
was the writer, director, actor on that and took care of us little kids. and i found myself recalling a lot of those memories about how i was set to be. if i was bored, he would make it fun. so the kid who plays in this movie, he and i got along fast and well.

>>this, of course, as you mentioned was the backdrop of the
spelling bee
. were you a good speller? are you a good speller?

>>i'm -- i'm -- i'm better than my wife. that's all that counts. i was not a great speller. i was in one
spelling bee
when i was a little kid. i lost early to the word answer. dropped that tricky "w."

>>what about "surprise"?

>>z-u-r -- am i right so far?

>>yeah.

>>no. the
spelling bee
aspect. we basically keep that in the background. it's basically a venue where all of this good stuff happens, you know.

>>i love spelling, though, and you have a doozy of a word in this. i want to see if you could spell it for us. flosinosinpilifilication, i believe.

>>okay. go ahead and start spelling it. you have to memorize that word?

>>well, we'd write them on cue cards around the camera. but multiple places so i could get three letters there and then and another card down, three more letters and, you know, so.

>>well, i won't ask you to spell it. just define it.

>>i don't -- i'm just a dumb actor.

>>dumb actor and director.

>>well, sure. but still dumb.

>>and you're directing again over the movie with
nicole kidman
, right?

>>yeah, starting in may, really excited.

>>well, the movie is "
bad words
," very funny. you feel guilty for laughing because you're so bad.